Riding the wind of rebirth

"Yes, still here!" Aunt Lu nodded quickly.

Old Lu put down the teacup and sighed: "Then let the two of you take another look."

Zhou Zhi and Lin Wanqiu exchanged glances with Ma Ye. It seemed that after Mr. and Mrs. Lu failed in their attempt to sell paintings in Beijing and came back more than ten years later, they still haven't been able to sell the painting.

But after a while, Lao Ma came out with a dark wooden box and placed it on the small stone table in the middle of the yard: "Two experts, the things are here."

Zhou Zhi reached out and picked up the long wooden box and looked at the box first.

The box has a special name, called "nangkao". Nangkao is actually a general term. Experts usually call nangkao with soft lining, hard surface, soft shell, hard shell, as well as book covers, painting boxes, brocade covers, etc. as nangkao.

The production of Chinese bags and boxes has a long history, and has developed to a very sophisticated level.

There are three types of brocade produced in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In addition to heavy brocade and fine brocade, there is also box brocade, which is a brocade specially made for making boxes. It can be seen that the brocade box industry was well developed in various places at that time.

The box is generally divided into two structures: the outer box and the inner box. The frame of the outer box is generally made of multiple layers of straw cardboard, which is both a load-bearing structure and a protective structure. The outside of the box is decorated with brocade, satin, or cotton cloth.

The box inside the box is made of cardboard, cotton, silk, Fuchun spinning, etc. Many cultural relics boxes use a double-layer box structure of soft or hard bags, which has a higher overall strength, can withstand external impact and compression, and is also convenient for transportation and storage.

The bags and boxes made by the Palace Workshop in the Forbidden City are an important method of protecting cultural relics. Their design and production are very sophisticated. The design of the Qing Dynasty palace bags and boxes not only meets the functions of collection and display, but also conveys the design ingenuity of the palace craftsmen and the establishment of the palace collection order.

The study of the design of palace pouches and the analysis of their cultural characteristics have certain academic significance and practical value for enriching the research on the design of palace pouches in the Qing Dynasty and spreading the culture of palace pouches. For this purpose, the Palace Museum has also set up a special research team to restore the palace craftsmanship of that time.

According to the types of cultural relics contained in them, the bags can also be divided into book covers, calligraphy and painting, ceramics and jade, bamboo, wood, ivory and horn, gold and stone clocks and watches, etc. Each one is "tailor-made", with the size just right to accommodate the designed object, while also taking into account the size, thickness, special requirements for vulnerable parts, stable and safe access to the objects, convenience of appreciation and storage, and coordination with the color and mood of the cultural relics, etc.

There are also many styles, such as hidden type bag box, visible grid combination type, hollow bag and door type, top and bottom cover type, pull-out type, etc.

The pouches and boxes of the Qing Palace were mainly decorated with blue cotton cloth or antique brocade as the outer box, and accessorized with white bone tags. After the cultural relics were placed in them, the color tone of the entire pouch and box blended perfectly with the solemnity and antiquity of the cultural relics, which was elegant and generous.

"This is straw cardboard, the main frame board used to make the outer box and the inner bag. The main components are rice straw, wheat straw, and dragon beard grass, which are mixed together and pulped. It contains more hemicellulose, and the fibers are thick and short. It has a certain toughness and high density and quality, and has a certain bending resistance." Zhou Zhi pointed to the bone material exposed in a damaged part of the brocade and introduced it to Lin Wanqiu and Ma Ye.

"The outer cover is correct, and the inner layer uses blue cloth, which is the unified standard of the Qing Palace. If you look closely at the cotton thread used, you can tell that it is handmade. Discoloration and smudging are also characteristics of fabrics at that time. Color fixation has always been a major problem in textiles."

"There are generally two kinds of blue cloth used for bags and boxes in the Qing Palace: one is plain weave and the other is twill weave. The twill weave is thick and the plain weave is thin."

"Generally, larger bags and boxes are made of thick twill cloth, while smaller bags and boxes are made of thinner plain cloth. This is no problem either." "The next thing is the brocade used for the outer packaging." Zhou Zhi said, "In addition to pure cotton blue cloth, the Qing Palace often used imitation Song brocade and silk satin."

Master Ma nodded and said, "You are an expert in this."

Zhou Zhi continued, "Song Dynasty brocade has been imitated in every dynasty. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the silk brocades from Suzhou and Hangzhou were the best, followed by Yunjin and Shujin. Before weaving the brocade, the warp and weft silks must be dyed in advance, and the weft silk must have three or more colors. The woven Song Dynasty brocade has gorgeous colors, and the patterns and designs are exquisite and elegant."

"This is a lantern brocade with dark and light crimson as the main colors. It is also a common material used by the Qing court to make high-end calligraphy and painting boxes."

"These two bone pendants are made of ivory. Judging from their funnyness, they are also old items."

Bone clasps are used to make sacks. When the bone clasp is inserted into the hole, the lid will tightly fasten the box. The raw materials for making bone clasps include ivory, jade, and animal bones. Different grades of materials can be selected according to needs.

If ivory is used, it will have an age characteristic. Ivory products will develop cracks over time, which is called "opening" in the jargon. The degree of cracking of ivory products can often be used as an important basis for determining the age of ivory products.

"There's nothing wrong with the appearance. Can I open it and take a look?" Zhou Zhi asked after examining the appearance.

"Look, look!" Aunt Lu showed some joy on her face: "The old people at home said that this box is original. With it, the things will be worth a lot of money!"

"That depends on how well it is kept." Zhou Zhi heard what Aunt Lu said, but he withdrew his hand that was reaching for the ivory pendant and shook his head: "The current state of your box is really not optimistic..."

The box was indeed not well preserved. There was color bleeding between the blue cloth and the brocade in many places, and it had even seeped onto the cardboard. The exposed cardboard was covered with white water rust marks, and had also expanded and deformed. This showed that the item had been soaked in water, and not simply soaked, but had been wet and damp for a long time.

"You got the things wet and then put them in the sun to dry?" Zhou Zhi was speechless. "The things look like they came from the Forbidden City, but there is no Forbidden City label on the box, so it must have been out of the palace for a long time."

"Yes, that's right. When we went to appraise it last time, the experts in the capital also said that it shouldn't be exposed to the sun." Old Lu felt a little regretful: "But my family's ability to preserve these precious items was lost a generation ago, and we didn't even know it!"

"Let Mr. Xiao Zhou take a look at the things inside first and then make a decision." Aunt Lu said. She didn't blame herself for talking too much, but she blamed her husband for talking too much.

"We have to open it and look at the lining to confirm the authenticity of the box. If it is still sealed, the box itself is not valuable, and it cannot increase the value of the things inside." Zhou Zhi explained patiently: "It can only provide supporting evidence for the authenticity of the things."

"I understand, I understand." Aunt Lu and Old Lu nodded repeatedly: "Mr. Xiao Zhou, you take a look first."

After getting the two people's mentality right, Zhou Zhi reached out again to pull out the ivory clip and opened the bag. When he saw the state of the things inside, he couldn't help but laugh and cry: "Damn! It's like this?" (End of this chapter)